After a successful drill preload test, Curiosity was primed to drill for the first time in about a year. Unfortunately, due to a light downlink from the Mars Odyssey spacecraft, we didn't get all the images down needed to safely carry out the drill activity in this weekend's plan. Instead, we'll push the drill activity out until we get the needed images down to help ensure it will complete successfully! Until then the view of the arm preload activity provides tantalizing hints of great things to come.

However, just because we couldn't carry out the drill activity as planned, that doesn't mean the team would let the rover sit idle. In fact, quite the opposite. The science operations team immediately started planning backup science activities. The team decided to carry out activities on two contact science targets with MAHLI imaging and APXS chemistry. These targets, dubbed "Rockall" and "Benbecula", will continue to help us characterize the composition and fine-scale textures of the bedrock around our upcoming drill location. These activities will provide valuable geologic context to the drill and help assess the variability of the bedrock in this area. A slew of ChemCam and Mastcam images are also being acquired to further this goal. It won't be long until the other instruments inside the rover body get to sample the fantastic geology of the Vera Rubin Ridge. Stay tuned this coming week for the results of the drill activities. The science team can't wait!

About this Blog

These blog updates are provided by self-selected Mars Science Laboratory mission team members who love to share what Curiosity is doing with the public.

Dates of planned rover activities described in these reports are subject to change due to a variety of factors related to the Martian environment, communication relays and rover status.

Contributors

Sterling Algermissen

Mission Operations Engineer; NASA/JPL; Pasadena, CA

Ryan Anderson

Planetary Geologist; USGS; Flagstaff, AZ

Mariah Baker

Planetary Geologist; Johns Hopkins University; Baltimore, MD

Michael Battalio

Atmospheric Scientist; Texas A&M University; College Station, TX

Kristen Bennett

Planetary Geologist; USGS; Flagstaff, AZ

Fred Calef

Planetary Geologist; NASA/JPL; Pasadena, CA

Brittney Cooper

Atmospheric Scientist; York University; Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Sean Czarnecki

Planetary Geologist; Arizona State University; Tempe, AZ

Lauren Edgar

Planetary Geologist; USGS; Flagstaff, AZ

Christopher Edwards

Planetary Geologist; Northern Arizona University; Flagstaff, AZ

Abigail Fraeman

Planetary Geologist; NASA/JPL; Pasadena, CA

Scott Guzewich

Atmospheric Scientist; NASA/GSFC; Greenbelt, MD

Samantha Gwizd

Planetary Geologist; University of Tennessee; Knoxville, TN

Ken Herkenhoff

Planetary Geologist; USGS; Flagstaff, AZ

Rachel Kronyak

Planetary Geologist; University of Tennessee; Knoxville, TN

Sarah Lamm

Planetary Geologist; LANL; Los Alamos, NM

Michelle Minitti

Planetary Geologist; Framework; Silver Spring, MD

Claire Newman

Atmospheric Scientist, Aeolis Research; Pasadena, CA

Catherine O’Connell

Planetary Geologist; University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Melissa Rice

Planetary Geologist; Western Washington University; Bellingham, WA

Mark Salvatore

Planetary Geologist; University of Michigan; Dearborn, MI

Susanne Schwenzer

Planetary Geologist; The Open University; Milton Keynes, U.K.

Ashley Stroupe

Mission Operations Engineer; NASA/JPL; Pasadena, CA

Dawn Sumner

Planetary Geologist; University of California Davis; Davis, CA

Vivian Sun

Planetary Geologist; NASA/JPL; Pasadena, CA

Lucy Thompson

Planetary Geologist; University of New Brunswick; Fredericton, New Brunswick, Canada

Ashwin Vasavada

MSL Project Scientist; NASA/JPL; Pasadena, CA

Roger Wiens

Geochemist; LANL; Los Alamos, NM

Tools on the Curiosity Rover

The Curiosity rover has tools to study clues about past and present environmental conditions on Mars, including whether conditions have ever been favorable for microbial life. The rover carries:

Sometimes the best laid plans of rovers go astray. After wrapping up at the Rock Hall drill site yesterday, the plan was for Curiosity to start driving towards the clay-bearing unit, starting with a series of small bumps so that MAHLI could take images of the full outer circumference of the wheels.

Today was our last day at "Rock Hall," so it was our final chance to get every last bit of science at this location. We had a 2.5 hour science block filled with Mastcam change detection imaging of the Rock Hall drill fines and alternating ChemCam RMI and LIBS observations of the Rock Hall dump pile, drill tailings, and target "St.Cyrus 2."

Today we planned a single sol of activities, Sol 2291. As we begin to wrap up our activities at the Rock Hall drill site, Sol 2291 is chock full of science observations. We'll begin the sol with an hour-long science block.

Our onboard instruments SAM (Sample Analysis at Mars) and CheMin (Chemistry and Mineralogy) have come to the end of their investigation of the Rock Hall target, likely to be our last drill location on the Vera Rubin Ridge, so this 2-sol plan is the beginning of the drill operation wrap up.

Today was a very smooth planning day on Mars, with the first scheduled science block in the plan being entirely filled by various spectroscopic ChemCam observations. The ChemCam instrument has the capabilities to be used in both passive and active modes, both of which were included in today's plan.

Today we are continuing the drill campaign at our red Jura target "Rock Hall." The focus of this weekend's plan is the dropoff of the Rock Hall sample to the SAM instrument, which will occur on Sol 2281.